


Between Paperwork and Espresso

by Zanya



Series: Falling Between the Lines [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Established Relationship, Freewriting, Gift Giving, Humor, M/M, Mild OoC, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-28
Updated: 2013-12-28
Packaged: 2018-01-06 10:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1105536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zanya/pseuds/Zanya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: Ed visits Roy at work to give him a gift. Roy immediately becomes suspicious of what this "gift" is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between Paperwork and Espresso

“What’s this?” Roy turned the small package over in his hands, and glanced up at Ed suspiciously. It was about seven inches long, and it had a mangled rectangular shape. Sort of. Roy honestly couldn’t tell if that was the shape of the gift or Ed’s terrible wrapping skills coming into play. 

Not that he necessarily thought Ed was trying to bribe him, but there were times when Ed would buy him something and expect something else in return. The law of equivalency still reared its ugly head sometimes. Not often. Usually only when he least expected it.

“It’s a package, for you.” Ed stood proudly like he had done something right and wonderful and perhaps in his mind he had. “Open it up.”

“Okay, what’s the occasion then?” Roy’s suspicions rose tenfold with that goofy grin on Ed’s face. Sometimes he couldn’t tell if the goofy grin meant, ‘I love you and wanted to do something nice for you’ or ‘once you open it, can you blow me?’

Ed’s hands flailed in the air a little and then he pushed the package further into Roy’s hands. “Come on. Don’t give me that look. You’ll ruin the occasion.” 

“Which you have yet to tell me what it is.” Roy slowly tore open a corner, making sure to keep his eyes on Ed for any signs that he should abandoned the package and shoo him out of the office. He did not want Hawkeye catching him satisfying Ed again. 

“Oh. Right.” Ed put his hand on his hip, put his weight on his left leg, and got a thoughtful look on his face “Well, it’s something of an Aerugonian tradition to exchange a small gift with the people you love this time of year so I though why not. Normally they do it in a few days, but I thought that you might feel weird if you didn’t have time to get me something—even though you don’t have to—so I wanted to give you yours early since you’re still on your equivalency kick and all.

“And it’s really cool what they do. They decorate their houses and bring in a giant tree to stuff presents under. Then when they get up in the morning, everyone opens their presents and are either disappointed or happy. Later on, there’s usually booze and a lot of fun times after the kids go to bed.”

Roy rubbed his forehead and carefully went back through what had just been quickly spit out at him. He wasn’t sure if he should feel proud that Ed was thinking about him or insulted that he only got a few days to find an appropriate gift to buy in return. His paperwork crinkled underneath his elbows. It didn’t help that, even though dressed simply, Ed always managed to distract him. A simple button up white shirt, black pants, and a brown coat haphazardly slung over his shoulder was enough to make Roy want to push the paperwork off his desk and do other, more interesting activities. 

Sighing, Roy pushed those thoughts out of his head and tore a little more of the corner away. “So, you’re sure there’s no catch. You’re not going to suggest things that may or may not get my ass handed to me by the Lieutenant Colonel? This is something appropriate for the workplace for me to open? Nothing strange or unusual is going to pop out of it? And then, after I look it over, if I decide to, I can get you something by next week?”

“Um,” Ed rocked back and forth on his heals. “Yeah, pretty much. Now open it before I end up old and useless like you.” 

Roy inhaled a deep breath, gave Ed the look he used when something had been said that didn’t please him, and let the present fall a couple inches down onto his desk. “Sorry, my mistake. I guess I’m too old and useless finish tearing this wrapping off.”

“Yeah, fine, okay. You’re not useless. Happy?” Ed leaned over the desk and pulled on Roy’s face so that his mouth tilted upwards. “And you’re _supposed_ to be happy so smile when you do it. Did you have a bad day or something? You’re not cooperating very much.”

“Don’t try to force me to smile.” Roy pulled away from Ed’s hands and ripped more of the wrapping paper off. Underneath he could see a small rectangular box. 

Curiosity started to get the better of him along with the shining grin Ed kept flashing his way. He had had a terribly boring day filled with a rather large mound of paperwork and never ending phone calls. Ed’s presence would only distract him from getting everything done on time. Still, he could afford to take a few minutes and see what all this gift-giving was about. 

“Go on.” Ed nodded his head vigorously, and Roy seriously wondered if he hadn’t taken some kind of stimulant before hand. 

So Roy tore the rest off and looked the box over. It was a plain brown box with nothing written on it. He lifted it up and gently shook it see if he could guess what lie inside. When nothing useful came to mind, he opened up his middle desk drawl and took out his scissors. Once he cut through the tape, he opened it up and removed the tissue paper. Inside there was a silver dagger. 

Roy lifted it out of the box and looked it over. The hilt of the dagger had red and black emblazoned across it in the form of flames. An array he didn’t recognize had been added in the middle. The blade gleamed in the light and looked sharp so he took extra care not to touch it. Looking up at Ed, Roy didn’t know what to say. The gift was well thought out and lovely. Ed had every right to feel proud of it.

“Thank you,” he managed to get out. He immediately felt lame and could only hope that Ed could see how much he appreciated it. “This array, what does it do?”

Ed moved around his desk and leaned over him so that their upper bodies pressed together. “The array is something I came up with and had Al double check and try out.” His fingers ran along the edges of the circle. “It’s sort of a combination between what I used to do and your alchemy.”

“How does it work?” Roy went to touch the inside of the array only to have Ed stop him. 

“Be careful. While I can touch it, I made it so that only your fingerprints can activate it. There’s another array on the other side.” Ed gently took Roy’s hand away. “See if you touch it like this,” He pressed his thumb and index finger in the center of both. “It will activate it. I wanted to make it specific enough so that if you keep in your pocket or hold it in your hand, you won’t burn yourself.

“It’s got a powerful and wide range to it so if you want to try it out and see how it is, make sure no one else is around and you’re in an open area.” Ed rested his head on Roy’s shoulder. “I’m glad you it. Wasn’t sure what to get you, but this will come in handy, plus it looks fancy.”

Roy chuckled set the dagger down. He took Ed’s hand in his own and pressed his cheek against Ed’s face. “It is fancy. I can’t wait to see what kind of power is behind it. Maybe this weekend we can both go somewhere secluded so I can test it out.”

“That’d be cool. I think you’ll like it. It might take some getting used to, but you can handle it.” Even though the upper half of Ed was still, his right leg moved and tapped against the floor. 

“What is with you today? You’re awfully energetic.” Roy pulled his head back a little so he could look Ed in the eye. 

“I don’t know. I’m excited.” Ed closed his eyes and snuggled back into the crook of Roy’s neck. “And I may or may not have had too much espresso before coming here. Like maybe five espressos or so.” He twisted his body inwards and now had part of his leg and thigh on top of Roy. “When do you get done? Shouldn’t your lunch break be coming up? Dunno if I can wait until tonight.” 

Roy moved his chair back when Ed slyly slid onto his lap. “Unfortunately, you missed my lunch break, but if I can concentrate on my work, I could probably, in theory, get done a little early and be home by five.”

“Hmm, the in theory part sounds a bit suspect.” Ed touched noses with Roy and smiled. “You’ve said that before and then hours later you were finally able to escape.”

“I’ll do the best I can.” Roy knew better than to make a promise he might not be able to keep. Anything could come up at the last minute. At twelve thirty in the afternoon, he had no way of knowing. 

But he did need to get back to work, and he wanted time to plot without Ed around to distract him. Already his brain was firing off ideas of what king of gift he could get Ed, who had to be the hardest person to shop for. Food or sex were both decent options but neither seemed like a gift or anything special when they did that normally. Books were the only other thing he could think of. Ah, that gave him an idea he could work with. He even knew a man that could find rare alchemy books. Even though Ed didn’t practice it anymore, he still often read what he could on it. 

“Okay, off you go.” Roy smirked, slid Ed off his lap, and pulled his chair far enough to his desk so there would be no extra room for Ed to slip back in. 

“Why are you smiling like that?” Ed gave Roy a suspicious look. He leaned against the desk and folded his arms across his chest while he waited for an answer. 

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Roy placed the dagger back into the box, picked up his pen and started reviewing his paperwork. When he heard Ed make a huffing sound, his grin split across his face. “You’ll find out… eventually. Now shoo before I call the Lieutenant Colonel in and tell her you’re keeping me from my work.”

“Alright, okay, I’m going. No need to pull out the threats. Dammit, it’s not like Hawkeye’ll go easy on me.” Ed retreated to the door the turned around and pointed at Roy. “And I will figure out what that grin means before you tell me.”

Roy didn’t bother to look up as he finished signing the paper in front of him and put on top of the rest that were sitting in the out box. “If nothing else, it’ll keep you occupied until I get home.”

Ed grunted and slipped out the door, leaving Roy alone with his paper and ideas. Now all he had left to figure out was when he could sneak away from Ed the next couple of days to see if he could find that book. And he also needed to remind himself to hide the espresso he had in his kitchen cupboards.

**Author's Note:**

> Lol, sometimes idek. I needed a break from editing the next chapter in Osmosis so I decided to free write. And then immediately decided that I should have written a FMA Christmas thing, only I don't think Arakawa had Christmas in FMA canon. I feel this is fic is a little odd and a lot of fun to write ^^ and not meant to be taken too seriously. 
> 
> Fair warning. With my free writing, I only do a spell check if the story ends up making sense and turns out to be something I can post. And that's it.
> 
> After writing this, I realized this goes with Between Research and Duty only somewhere earlier in their relationship.


End file.
